UMass Amherst Links

My Philosophy

 I believe there are 4 keys to success (in no particular
order): focus, patience, commitment and confidence

 I believe that the above is entailed in Douglas Adam's Famous catch
phrase don't panic.

 I believe the process for accomplishing any goal is as follows: recursively
decompose the proposed goal (into subgoals) until one has only a set of atomic
goals. Accomplish each atomic goal first, then accomplish those goals which
depend on other goals. Accomplishing means processing the goal until the necessary
outcome occurs and is verified. When the root goal is accomplished work is
done and one does "clean up".

 I believe in the Taoist notion: "do your work, then step back, the
only path to serenity".

 Ethics and Religion

 To me, 'religion' is a way of life. It doesn't necessarily
have anything to do with concepts of god or afterlives. I believe a religion
is a way of living that has a kernel and that kernel governs every way a person
interacts with the world and with themselves. So that entails what we think,
say, do, etc, and also to the extent which we can know the future, entails
the causal relationship of what we do and what occurs from that. The Buddhist
notion of the "eight-fold path" seems to mesh well with my idea, so I try
to stick to that as best I can.

 The Eight Fold Path: right view, right intention, right speech, right
action,right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration.
Some of these may seem redundant and they are all essentially related to ethics.
But there is no particular notion of what is right. The idea is
just to strive for what is right by seeing the world as it is and focusing
on the eight concepts so that one does not forget to be aware of the moral
implications of any form of interactions.

 I believe that ultimately the terms 'right', 'wrong', 'good' and 'bad'
must be defined in terms of conscious/sentient suffering, which is relative
to the experiencer. Defining ethics in this way gives further meaning to the
above notions.

 Politics, Leadership and Social Interaction

 My prime directive is one that is not easy to put in practice, but
I believe I must strive for it none the less. My approach to life is one
that attempts to consider intentional actions from the standpoint of necessary
goals and possible ethical implications. Therefore, my number one directive
is to not take any action which might be wrong if the action is not necessary.
What to do when an action might be wrong and might be necessary is tricky
though.

 In terms of politics I believe in social responsibility in proportion
to social dependence. The following axiom: if some people can change, and
some people can not change, and it is necessary that some people change,
then those who can change are obligated to change. Therefore, I believe
that those who are aware of environmental problems, are obligated to do
something to solve those problems, if only by minimizing their contribution
to the problem.

 I believe leadership is a task best left to a Taoist master. The
Taoists may say something like "the master leads by staying behind, while
others go ahead." This can be taken to mean that the master stays focused
on the tasks at hand and remains diligent while others bounce about wasting
time and such. They also say that when the master leads, the people say
"wow, we did it all by our selves." In the spirit of Taoism, a cartoon called
Futurama once portrayed god as saying "when you do things right, people
won't know you did anything at all." That is to say that the end result
fit like a puzzle piece.

 I am a political activist and believe in sustainable agriculture,
resource management, manufacturing and transportation. But more importantly
I believe the processes must not cause harm to any sentient beings. In protest
of the harm that does come to sentient beings, I treat the spending of money
very seriously as I consider it a vote. Just as in a democracy, a vote has
a small impact, but it has some impact and in theory all the votes in total
constitute the end result. Therefore I will spend as little money as possible,
always preferring to solve my goals with items that can be acquired without
supporting the industries. The computer I am using even now was thrown away
as obsolete. I just bought a used car, which is still supporting the industry
because the person I bought it from went and bought a new car partly with
my money. But there is no better alternative that I can see. I am also vegetarian,
and vegan to some extent, but I see no reason to stop using any products
which I already have; I am not throwing away my leather belt... what should
I do, go buy a new belt, and support industry some more?